Kelli and I are taking off for the entire Thanksgiving week on a driving tour to the Redwood national forest in northern California, and stopping at a number of places in between. This is our delayed honeymoon, so we are taking in a few places with some romantic appeal, but it's low key rural stuff. No fancy Hawaii or Bahamas or French Riviera. Nah, that shit is just too expensive and cliched. Some want to go to the sandy and balmy beach resorts in exotic locales. We chose to go where it rains a lot and is really gray. The beaches are rocky too, when there are any. I guess we'll get some good "indoor time" while we're gone. Hey, for only the second time in years, I will be away from my house and computer. I will probably go through withdrawal syndrome. I don't know when I last went on a real vacation. I believe the last time was a real ill-fated trip to Alaska over New Years Eve (coming into 1995). That trip was something worth forgetting. Man, I really know how to pick my vacation spots: go to cold northern reaches in the wintery months! I like the colder temperatures in general; Kelli has to have a winter coat on when the temps fall below 70, or so it seems. She and I have never really gone out for more than a day trip to the mountains. This promises to be a different experience, considering we've been together almost three years now.

I've never been anywhere further north than San Francisco (on a road tour), and even at San Fran I never saw anything because I was working. No Golden Gate, no Chinatown, nothing but ass ends of hotels and other venues. I've been wanting to see the northern part of the state for a long time. Actually, the Pacific Northwest is a place I like, at least in my imaginings. I have been to Seattle and some outlying areas once and liked it. I like the landscape and the still relatively undisturbed nature of it all. San Diego is total ass compared to that region. San Diego also has too many Republicans too. Kelli and I have entertained the idea of living up in the Oregon/NorCal area. Some friends of ours have regaled us with tales of Arcata, which seems to be interesting for its liberal nature, with people doing funny things like using land and resources wisely, and talking funny about stuff like "community" and "civic involvement" and other weird stuff.